Chelsea striker Salomon Kalou has revealed that Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel
Eboue apologised to John Terry for the challenge which left him on crutches and
facing the possibility of Christmas on the sidelines.
Blues captain Terry could be out for several weeks with the ankle injury,
though the club have yet to indicate how long he is likely to be unavailable
for.
Kalou revealed he spoke to his Ivorian compatriot Eboue after Arsenal's 1-0
victory at Emirates Stadium yesterday.
And Kalou, who was unhappy with Eboue's tackle, praised the Gunners player for
at least offering an apology.
'I was saying to Eboue that it was a red card because he did it on purpose -
but he denied that,' said Kalou.
'He said he tried to block the ball and it was not on purpose. He said sorry
to John. He didn't mean to do it, but to apologise was a nice thing to do.
'John will be a big loss and is very important to the squad. We will miss him
and it will be difficult to do it without him but we have the players to do
that.'
Kalou admitted the defeat in north London was hard to take but not
undeserved.
'It was a tough game and it is always difficult to play Arsenal because they
play really good football,' he said.
'Yesterday we made it easy for them because we didn't try to play our
football and defended a lot.
'They deserved the result. We didn't set out to play defensively. We played
the formation we always play but maybe they were too quick and kept the ball
well. It was difficult to take the ball from them.'
